New Father
by TheUnsigned
Summary: Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** New Father

**Rating: **T.

**Warnings/Pairings**: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Spoilers for Portal/2

**Summary:** Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.

**Author's Notes:** One thing about participating in a kink meme finds you somewhat obligated to do a fill. This isn't the kinkiest of fills but the idea gave my heart strings a wee tug. I think perhaps – and here I hate to sort of write a 'rationalization' or an 'explanation' but – my Rattmann here is the same guy as in Tick-Tock, just in a different situation. Tick-Tock as you will find is about grey areas and this is the story where Douglas Rattmann isn't "Aperture Scientist Extraordinaire" or "Crazy test subject". Instead he's a man who sort of got a chance to help out another person and did in his own way. At any rate I cleaned this up a little.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

Fact: Douglas Rattmann was not very good with other people.

Fact: Especially women.

He wasn't precisely dancing around naked on a table under the influence of three very rum-laced eggnogs at the Aperture Christmas party (like that poor Wheatley fellow) and not even Laura from Accounting had blamed him when he shoved a hand into her generous cleavage to keep some deadly acid water from spilling down her front.

Actually, Laura had been very grateful that she hadn't died or been disfigured but in spite of her best efforts to reward Douglas for his heroics, he simply bowed away with embarrassment.

"Listen Boss." The test subject named Rick sauntered up to him. "Sorry about takin' Laura away from you but your problem is, you have no moves. I have a black belt in both accounting and the bedroom. No contest here. But hey. We got a bunch of new test subjects in tomorrow. Aw sure, bunch of them are hobos but hey, we're rich right? Maybe one of them will be hot."

Rattmann considered the proposition. He was lonely. He wasn't flashy or conventionally attractive but he had a lot of things going for him. He was healthy. He didn't drink or smoke. He made a lot of money. He had a PhD in Science and liked to draw. Sure, a lot of women thought those things were interesting but for some reason they wanted men like Rick. Confident men. Doug was about as confident as a ball of string. He sucked the tip of one of the fountain pens he insisted on using until he tasted ink and had to spit into his rubbish bin.

The problem was that he hated the hobos. Not because they were people who were down on their luck, but because a lot of them felt worldly around him and while he never made fun of them for their shortcomings in life, they seemed to feel the need to antagonize him.

"Would you look at this one?" a particularly weedy looking man with protuberant buck teeth and a milky eye gestured at Doug. "Can't even get his clothes on."

Self consciously, Rattmann glanced at his misbuttoned labcoat. "This way please." He said softly.

"BARBIE, GET OVER HERE!" the man hollered. The woman who looked up and lumbered over could not have looked less like the toy doll she shared a name with. She was obviously obese to the point of unhealthiness, wearing clothes some two sizes too small. She was dragging a little girl, skinny and dressed in something from a Church donation bin along with her. The hue of the girl's skin and her colourless eyes suggested firmly that there had been some sort of adultery involved in her creation.

"Here." 'Barbie' handed the girl off to Doug as though he was supposed to know what to do with her. One of the other scientists took the couple off to the testing area. The girl was quiet and said nothing but looked up at him with a demanding expression.

"Uhhh…" Doug was not used to speaking to other humans. "Would you like um…a cookie or something?"

She thought about this and nodded, trailing obediently behind him as he went to the testing observatory.

The young girl didn't say a word but sat eating stale raisin cookies from the bag Rattmann had found in the break room with a cup of strong black tea and playing solitaire games on his computer monitor. At least that's what he thought she was doing.

When he turned around for the first time, she was in his files. He jumped up in alarm but the girl was solving the tests he'd made. Solving them like a pro. He forgot to watch the test subjects as she executed virtual solutions in rapid succession.

A siren broke both their concentration. In the chamber below, two forms bobbed in the acid water. Rattmann covered the child's eyes, shielding her from her parents grisly demise.

"I…I don't know what…"

The girl pulled his hand away from her face, not even noticing as the skeleton of the once enormous Barbie, now dissolved of flesh, slipped below the surface. She tugged at him and he could only get up, follow her to the work station and let her show him her own 'test chambers'.

Rattmann swallowed a lump in his throat. "V…Very good. Very good." He repeated.

The girl beamed at him and he picked up the phone to call Cave Johnson personally. He didn't know what he would say.

"Wait…" Doug poked his head back in. "Do you have a name?"

She snatched up a paper and wrote it down. Her writing was atrocious but Rattmann wasn't surprised by her literacy. It was a mystery as to where she'd learned, but he suspected she must have gone to school at some point.

"Chell." He pronounced it as 'shell'.

She shook her head vigorously and underlined the 'Ch'.

"Chuh?" He tried again. "Chell?"

This time she nodded.

"Well, Chell…um…you'll have to come home with me. Just for tonight. It's um…okay – I'll get you pajamas and a toothbrush…and wash your clothes!"

She nodded affably as though he'd told her nothing more unusual than the fact that the weather would be sunny tomorrow.

"Okay. You sit here…and..um…don't look out that window or…touch anything. Please?"

Chell nodded.

"Okay. Just..watch…my…just watch my desk." He thought better of it and gave her the keyboard to his computer. "And…play."

She gave him another smile that never seemed to reach her eyes. Very odd for a young girl. He noticed there were crumbs on her cheek and he brushed them off.

"Mr. Johnson, the…um…Puttertons…well, kind of died in Chamber 18 and they had a kid. I think I have to take her home. With me, I mean." Rattmann knew there were strict policies about involving the police in Aperture business.

"Is this gonna cost me anything Rattmann?"

"Well no, but I'll have to…"

"Fine fine, do whatever you need to do. Don't talk to me about your family Rattmann. I don't care."

"She's not my…okay Sir. Long as it's okay."

"Whatever. Do you need a personal day?"

"No Sir."

"Then get back to work!" There was a decisive click on the other end.

With that said, the scientist stood in the office hall, the dead phone held limply in his hand. Maybe this wouldn't be bad. The girl was quiet and smart and didn't whinge or squall like some other kids. He opened up the office door, noticing she'd put his desk into order and had even located two pen caps he thought he'd lost.

"Okay Chell, it's um…time. Come on."

She hopped out of her seat and followed him out the door. He wondered if she was actually mute or just unwilling to speak. He wasn't a fan of childish or adult chatter so he dismissed the idea and counted his blessings.

She pet his moss green ford all over before climbing in, as though to thank it for the ride it was about to give her. He marveled at the way she was more an adult than him in some ways but almost behind her years in others.

"Hey, Chell, do you like Spaghetti?"

She shrugged.

He didn't speak again. Both of them seemed fine with that idea. The radio played some sad slow song and she tossed her head to the beat.

Rattmann's attempt at spaghetti was a culinary disaster. All the noodles stuck together and the tomato sauce was Dolmio stir-in. He also forgot to warm the sauce up but she ate a generous portion including the chewy stuck-together noodles and drank two glasses of milk, then smiled at the conclusion of the meal and gave her stomach a gentle pat.

He gave her one of his t-shirts to wear as a nightgown and then put on the evening news, largely ignoring it in favour of the crossword in the local paper.

Chell emerged from the toilet, wearing the shirt which reached her knees and suddenly reached across him and corrected his answer for three-down. By this point it did not come as a surprise to realize she was right and that the fact that six-across now made perfect sense.

They sat there for a few hours with him passing her the pen when she tugged at his sleeve. He looked over at her when he got to the unsolved twenty-three across but she'd fallen asleep on his shoulder, her mouth slightly open and drooling. He plucked a tissue from the side table, cleaned her up and for the first time in Douglas Rattmann's life, the throw blanket on the back of the couch covered two.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** New Father

**Rating: **T.

**Warnings/Pairings**: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Spoilers for Portal/2

**Summary:** Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.

**Author's Notes:** Hooboy. K-Mart was around in the 50ies/60ies wasn't it? Also: My Wheatley does take cues from Mr. Merchant in a lot of ways – but my uncle and his 3 brothers were all at the high end of the 6-foot to low 7-foot range and you had better believe I, being ungodly short demanded rides from them when I was a kid and it was AWESOME. Unfortunately, it's undignified for people my present age to ask to sit on anyone's shoulders.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Rattmann left Chell lying on the couch, tucking the blanket around her as she slept. He wrote a note to say that he'd gone to the store. Normally even someone of his limited interaction experience would have realized that it was potentially a bad idea to leave a young child unattended. Chell on the other hand, during the short time she'd been under his care had his full confidence.

As it turned out almost the only store suited to his purposes happened to be a K-mart. He felt odd buying little girl's underclothes but the cashier didn't seem to care. He purchased a number of items that looked like they would fit her unimaginably tiny frame not even realizing that he was mentally considering the idea of her growing into some. Then it was off to the 24 hour convenience store for some cereal and milk. He bought some orange juice as well and picked over the women's section of the magazine rack for any that talked about recipes. He knew he had to learn how to cook at some point; he couldn't consistently rely on take out and staples.

She was awake when he got back, eating a piece of toast. His immediate reaction was one of concern. When had he last bought bread?

"You don't want that Chell, it's stale...wait." The situation caught up with his brain "You managed to get the toaster not to burn everything? That's pretty amazing. I've got a degree in science and I couldn't even do that!"

She gave him a funny look, gestured to the scraped off bread mold and cut crusts sitting on the counter and shrugged again.

"Really." he repeated, digging in the fridge until he found a tiny jar of ages-old marmalade and presenting it to her. She dug out a glob and ate it on her last bite all in a go. If nothing else she was a typical child in the fact that she really did seem to like sugar.

After a moment the queer expression turned into a real smile. He guessed her parents hadn't been the sorts of folks to dole out a lot of praise.

"Well here. Have some proper breakfast and uh, you'll have to come into work again with me today. I bought you clothes." He frowned and hurriedly pulled out a pair of scissors to chop off the tags.

She took them with another smile and went to go about her morning routine without any further prompt from him. Doug took a seat at the table with his coffee, staring into the granules a long time before he realized he'd forgotten to add the water. What was he going to do with her? Aperture had a day care but that was for toddlers. Not even the smartest kids there were appropriate for Chell. He considered. Maybe one of the test subjects on staff?

Chell looked nicer today and she seemed happier as well. He got a hand-squeeze for his trouble that seemed to be a positive statement on his clothing choice. Once more, she was intent on petting his car, a ritual repeated from the other night when he took her into the car park this morning. He wondered if she might have grown up with animals. She was delighted by his Johnny Cash tape when he put it on the radio.

Upon arrival at work the test subjects were waiting, and Rattmann couldn't help but swallow a lump in his throat. He always dreaded this first part of the morning, muscles straining until he could escape to his small office. Now he had the added bonus of realizing he'd have to find one of them to take Chell for the afternoon, but which? Stanley Howard pumped full of all those hormones for 'emotional' purposes was straight out of the question. Feather Moon the 'fact finder' would probably breathe marijuana smoke on his Chell.

Since when had she become 'his' Chell? Logically, at 15:35 yesterday afternoon. Emotionally, well…he had to focus.

The idea struck him as he thought of families. That was an idea: a babysitter. That's what parents did, wasn't it? One or two of these test subjects were intern students who would jump at the chance for some extra cash. Just as he was trying to decide between the inquisitive Milicent Everclear and their Conversion Gel Project intern Leslie Nolan, he received a soft touch on his arm.

He looked down to see Pricilla Marsden and froze. He'd been fascinated by her from day one but she was his test subject and therefore off limits. Doug Rattmann wasn't a teenager and he had no qualms (well, perhaps a few) about what her fate would be, but he was old and wise enough to push them aside for Science. Besides. She had to remain pure. Moral. Nonetheless, he couldn't help the thrill that traveled up his arm when she touched it. She pointed over at Chell who was making soundless 'whoops' of excitement from her perch atop…Wheatley. That damn Wheatley Harris. First Pricilla Marsden and now his Chell? What was it about that bloody Harris fellow? He did the only thing that Douglas Rattman knew how to do in such a situation. He scribbled a note that Wheatley would not be testing today and would instead be playing babysitter, mumbled the day's instructions to the rest of the subjects and scurried off as fast as his legs would take him while refusing to acknowledge the world around him until he was safely in his den.

He'd been a scientist this long. He'd maintained his detachment from the world around him this long. How was it that he could not even concern himself with the fate of a woman he found himself attracted to, but his heart was ripped from his body when he thought of Chell even so much as excited to be around someone else more than him?

* * *

><p>Chell was fascinated by the tall man. She went to inspect him, looking up – very far up. She backed up so she could look at his eyes. They were tired too, just like the man who had taken her home. Like a lot of people here.<p>

He glanced down at her. He wasn't like the man who took her home. He wasn't nervous. He was hoping she would talk and she sort of wanted to. He bent down and asked her if she wanted to get onto his shoulders.

Chell furrowed her brow. That sounded strange but he scooped her up without warning and placed her atop his shoulders where she immediately clutched tufts of his hair.

"Now Luv, ol' Wheatley quite likes his hair where it is, yes, please stop pulling it out, there's a good girl."

She tentatively let go, as his hands wrapped around her legs and she hung on for dear life to his now accessible forearms. He walked forward suddenly and she gasped in delight. This wasn't scary, it was FUN!

He looked down below to the violet-eyed woman at his side. "Well there you have it then, just goes to show. Bloody Rattmann as a dad. Always had him figured for an unlovable git."

Chell scowled and yanked at his hair again, eliciting a yelp. She smiled, satisfied. The woman chuckled a bit. "I think our little friend thinks he's a fine dad."

Wheatley patted her leg. "Oh, always liked the Rat…mean always did like Rattmann. Douglas, yes that's it. Always did like Doug. Lovely man. Perfectly wonderful. Model of…testing…science."

"That'll do, Wheatley."

Chell pat the soft hair this time as a reward for saying nice things about her father.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** New Father

**Rating: **T.

**Warnings/Pairings**: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Spoilers for Portal/2

**Summary:** Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.

**Author's Notes:** The book series in question was what my grandfather read to me when I was that age – the series is colloquially called "The Adventure Series" by Enid Blyton. If you've never read them, I strongly urge you to go pick them up. My personal fave was the seventh book – "The Castle of Adventure" They're about as old as my father would be, so nearly 60!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

For Rattmann, the day plodded. He found himself ignoring the test chambers to seek out Wheatley and Chell. Once, he almost laughed upon the monitor's display of the impossibly tall man seated firmly in a plastic blue chair made for a toddler, his knees drawn all the way up to his chest with Chell serving him what appeared to be heavily sugared weak tea. He drank it with his pinky finger sticking out like a well-to-do lady, making Chell giggle silently.

"Well, I don't mind that you got me out of testing for the day, Chell." Wheatley said. His conversational skills were making up the entirety of their day and the man was delighted to have a willing audience. "I'm not very good at it."

Chell presented him with an arrowroot biscuit pinched from the day care by way of a response.

"You know," Wheatley interjected around a mouthful of cookie, "You should ask…well, not ask exactly, but you know what I mean – to get ol' Ratty…Doug, Doug! Your dad!" Chell had raised her fist against him. Those little punches hurt! "Anyway, he's something of an artist. Pretty good too."

Whether or not Chell took this information to heart, Wheatley couldn't tell, but when five o' clock rolled around, Doug appeared right on time. Probably the fastest he'd ever arrived anywhere in his life.

Upon seeing Doug's face, Chell dropped Wheatley's hand and raced towards him. She was scooped up immediately her arms flinging themselves around Rattman's neck in a vise grip.

"She was as good as gold." Wheatley caught up with the pair, ruffling Chell's hair gently. He held out a pile of books. "They're Pricilla's. She figured she might like to read them, but I think you ought to read them to her. You know, bedtime stories. This one's the first in the series. We got up to chapter four at lunch."

Doug glanced at Wheatley. He'd really never cared for the man but he suddenly found himself appreciating the other man's superior knowledge of child care. Perhaps he wasn't such a moron after all.

"Thanks." He mumbled, propping Chell onto his hip and scuttling off to collect his lunch, the books tucked tightly into the crook of his arm.

As it turned out, Chell liked Kansas. She made him sit in the car to listen to the last strains of Dust in the Wind before they were allowed to get out.

They ate their grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken soup in silence, Doug pleased by his growing successes in the kitchen. Chell returned to Doug's lap at the conclusion of the meal which he took as positive reinforcement.

He hoisted her up and padded into the sitting room, putting on the television for a little background noise. Chell disappeared, but it wasn't to go to the toilet like he expected as she returned a moment later with the book Wheatley had told him he'd started to read to her.

"Guess you had a good time with Mr. Wheatley after all." He picked up the book. "I need one hour, Chell. Just one. I have to work on some tests."

With Chell looking over his shoulder the test chamber designs went faster and, Rattmann thought, rather better than anything he might have come up with on his own.

Soon enough, the book was being insistently shoved at him again.

"Alright. So, Chapter Four was it?"

She nodded.

"Dinah and Jack…"

Chell shook her head violently and grabbed hold of Doug's arm.

"What's the matter?"

Chell pointed to his mouth.

"I'm reading the right chapter, Wheatley said you hadn't started four."

She shook her head, now obviously frustrated by her inability to speak and convey to him what she wanted.

"Louder?"

She tossed her head.

"Um…slower?"

She tossed her head again, pointing to his mouth incessantly.

"Oh! I get it!"

He pitched his voice high up. "You want me to do voices, is that it?"

She nodded and giggled at his bad approximation of an English accent and a girl at that. Now content, she snuggled into his side for the remainder of the story. Doug got through four chapters before she began to yawn.

"You know Chell, you're a smart girl." He knew it was pointless to try and put her to bed. She would inevitably sneak out and join him on the couch. His own bed was buried under a heap of laundry. He couldn't even remember the colour of the bedspread. One day she would need to sleep on her own, but when it was Chell, he didn't mind the company. "You should make a science project for the Bring Your Daughter To Work Day."

Predictably her eyes lit up at the notion of doing science like her…well, yes, he was her father now. He'd come to terms with that fact.

"Go brush your teeth and wash your face Chell."

She got up, but when Doug woke up, he couldn't remember falling asleep or when she'd gotten back, but she was tucked snugly beneath his arm.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** New Father

**Rating: **T.

**Warnings/Pairings**: Douglas Rattmann as a single father, Wheatley/Morality Core, One-sided Doug/Morality Core, Spoilers for Portal/2

**Summary:** Douglas Rattmann was never cut out to be a parent, but he finds himself thrust into the role when a young girl is orphaned under his watch.

**Author's Notes:** Do I have anything of note to say? Eh, not today. (Rare, I know.)

* * *

><p>"Oh hello Douglas. Who is this?"<p>

Doug had never trusted Caroline. She had such a false manner about her all the time. Her voice was so sweet and everyone else thought so highly of her, especially Cave Johnson. Nobody argued with Cave Johnson. It was like arguing with a wall. Neither Cave nor the wall gave a shit about any opinions besides his own. As to Caroline, Douglas thought her repulsive but he was smart enough to keep his opinions to himself. He gently gave his small companion a little shove and she dutifully disappeared into his office.

"Shy."

"Oh well that's rather too bad. You adopted her, didn't you?

"Yes."

"Parents didn't really want her. What a shame." Her voice was genuine but she gave the kind of sad expression that wasn't reflected in her eyes. Everything about Caroline was a lie except maybe her affection for Mr. Johnson.

Caroline strolled off and Douglas felt a surge of hatred for her before he followed his young charge into the office.

He tried to affect a positive attitude. Chell didn't seem perturbed at all by what Caroline had said. She seemed to have a thicker skin than almost any adults he knew.

"So Miss Chell, would you like to spend the day with Mr. Wheatley again?"

She nodded enthusiastically much to his disappointment. He refused to refuse her.

Pricilla Marsden arrived instead of Wheatley when he called. Doug wanted to be furious at her. He knew exactly what she was up to with that moron and considering she answered when he had called HIM, they weren't being subtle about it either. They were both test subjects and he was a scientist and that meant that she was off limits, as he had to remind himself at least a dozen times every day. It didn't stop him from finding a way to brush up against her, or smell her hair or touch her hand…

He gave himself a little mental shake.

"Hello Chell!" Pricilla was rewarded with a hug.

"Could you spend the day with Chell again please? I…"

"I know why you're so uptight Doug. It's okay."

Rattmann froze solid. How had she found out about his feelings for her? He'd been subtle hadn't he?

"It's so awful what happened to that little girl from our test subject group. The little one who was always asking questions. Millie? I know it's got to be terrible for you, but I have faith you'll find her. I don't think there's anyone so cruel as to be able to keep that sweet child hostage." Cilla actually hugged him but Rattmann couldn't enjoy it. He knew exactly where Milicent was. The downstairs lab was over run with a mechanical voice constantly asking questions.

He pulled away from the woman. "I…I need to work. Take Chell."

Cilla was so used to their head scientist not wanting to be around other people for long she didn't question it. Thankfully.

The instant the two had left, Doug sat down in his chair, putting his head in his hands. He was a monster. An utter monster. No matter what kind of good deeds he did he would never be able to make it up. He could try though. Nothing bad would happen to Chell. Never. Not even if he had to die for her.

* * *

><p>"Oh hello again Chell!"<p>

Chell watched as Wheatley had to lean down, very far down, to kiss the far smaller Cilla. She realized that her adoptive father really liked Cilla but it was pretty obvious to her that even though sometimes Wheatley said stupid stuff this girl liked him better. That was just the way the world was sometimes. She remembered when her father had once hit her mother and said that Chell was a 'bastard child' and her mother was a 'slut'. They stayed together though.

"Chell, I was thinking about this and I have an idea."

Cilla sounded so serious that both Wheatley and Chell looked up.

"Your Daddy probably hasn't told you because he doesn't want you to be scared, but Cave Johnson – that's your daddy's boss - has organized a 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day'. I guess you'd be wondering why it's 'Bring Your Daughter To Work' and not 'Bring Your Son' or 'Bring you Child'. Something very scary happened here. A girl who was about eighteen years old went missing one day. She was a test subject, just like Wheatley and myself."

Chell nodded in her own, serious way. Obviously Wheatley and Cilla were shaken up about it.

"How about if Wheatley and I were to help you make a project for the Science Fair Competition. I bet your Dad would be really happy if you helped out."

Chell nodded.

Wheatley groaned. "Oh no, the only things I can do are potato batteries…and even then I wasn't very good at them."

Chell smiled and put her hand on his leg – that was as far up as she could reach. If it would make Doug happy, she would do anything…and if all it took was a potato battery? That was simple.

Making the battery was simple, but Wheatley pointed out they needed a big poster board to write down hypothesizes and results.

Chell knew that Doug had all sorts of paper and posterboard and markers in his office and before either of her two guardians could stop her she'd taken off.

She soon outstripped her caretakers – Cilla wasn't the most athletic woman and Wheatley's sense of direction was abominable. She arrived in the office and pulled up as she watched her father. He hadn't heard her come in, but he wasn't working like she normally found him. He'd moved the huge file cabinet away from the wall and was drawing on the expanse of wall just behind it.

Once, Chell's mother had sent her to her room without supper for that so Chell could understand why he wanted to hide it. It was better art than she could do and she quietly sat herself down and watched.

There were a lot of various sketches, but she focused on what he was presently working at. It was something very sad. There was a small ball with an orange center, kind of like a glowing eye. Then there were also the people. One woman, crossed out, Two men and a woman crying and also another man she didn't know. She eventually recognized that two of the men were Doug himself and Wheatley and that the woman looked a lot like Cilla. It didn't take too long for her to realize that must be the serious thing she'd been told about.

Rattmann suddenly turned around, dropped his marker and stared for a long time at Chell as always unsure how to react.

She hugged him, her small arms around his waist and her face burrowed into his middle.

He hadn't known it was possible to feel more remorse than he already did.

"You know." He said, feeling his stomach drop out from under him.

She nodded and squeezed him tighter.

He knew he didn't deserve it at all, and he was about to do worse. There were still seven more cores to make, after all. He knew he was being selfish – unduly so – by hugging her back but at this point, anything went.


End file.
